The bullet-riddled body of a Myanmar policeman was found in northern Rakhine state, government media said Sunday, as tensions rise in the hotspot where the Rohingya crisis erupted last year. The western territory is a tinderbox of ethnic and religious divisions and security forces have clashed with both Rohingya insurgents and much better armed Rakhine fighters from the mostly Buddhist Arakan Army. Private Aung Kyaw Thet went missing in action after an ambush last week by unknown assailants in Maungdaw township near the border with Bangladesh.

His body was found two days ago with "gunshot wounds in his face, arm and leg near a hill inside the other country," according to government-backed Global New Light of Myanmar. The ambush happened the same day that two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men disappeared while fishing in the same township and were later found with their throats slit, prompting the army to launch local "clearance operations" and raising fears of renewed large-scale violence.